More women using pain medication to deliberately self-harm

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Figures obtained by the ABC show an overwhelming over-representation of women and young girls using it to deliberately hurt themselves.

Transcript

00:00The Therapeutic Goods Administration, through various means, had discovered there was this

00:07increasing problem of paracetamol poisoning in young women, teenage girls effectively,

00:14female adolescents.

00:16And this was quite a surprising rise at that time.

00:21So over the 10 years up to about 2018, rates had doubled.

00:26And that's when they started thinking this is a bit of a problem, and they commissioned

00:30a report.

00:31Actually, since then, with COVID, in the youngest age group of teenagers, these rates have then

00:38tripled again.

00:40So now sixfold higher at the end of the COVID shutdown period than it had been in 2012.

00:48Wow, that's quite alarming.

00:51That's quite alarming numbers there.

00:52Now, your report made a number of recommendations, which included reducing the size of packs

00:58of paracetamol and also limiting the number of packs that can be purchased in one transaction.

01:03In light of those, do you think the current proposed restrictions are in line with the

01:07recommendations in the report?

01:09Well, actually, our report didn't say, you know, you have to do this.

01:14It essentially presented a suite of options to the government about what they could do

01:20about it.

01:21And then they selected which ones they thought were acceptable in the light of the need for

01:27people to keep taking painkillers and for legitimate reasons.

01:33And so it's always a trade-off, but our report was really summarising what the evidence had

01:38said might make a difference, and that included pack size restrictions, it included limiting

01:44packs, it included an age limit, and it included making modified release paracetamol prescription

01:51only.

01:52And the government selected some of those options, and I guess we'll see if that's sufficient

01:58with time.

02:00I guess many of our viewers watching this will be wondering how it affects them.

02:04You know, will this make it more difficult for someone with a headache to go and purchase

02:10paracetamol at the chemist?

02:12What would you say to them?

02:13Well, it'll make no difference to them whatsoever.

02:16So if you're occasionally taking paracetamol, what this means is when you go into a supermarket,

02:22you'll be able to buy a packet of 16.

02:23You can go into a pharmacy and just buy a packet of 24.

02:27If you ask the pharmacist, you can get larger packs.

02:34So it's really that simple.

02:37And just briefly, on the overdosing on paracetamol, I mean, how safe is paracetamol if you're

02:44using it correctly, if you're taking the dosage that's recommended?

02:47Do people need to be worried about accidental overdosing at all?

02:52Generally, paracetamol is very safe as a regular medicine or an occasional medicine.

02:59People taking therapeutic doses rarely get into trouble.

03:02We do see people who get into trouble where they overdose without trying to harm themselves,

03:08like they have a headache that won't stop.

03:10And so they just keep taking more and more.

03:13Those people can certainly get into harm.

03:15But if you're taking the recommended doses, there's pretty much no chance of getting into

03:20any trouble.

03:21OK, Nicholas Buckley, Toxicologist.

03:23Don't Google it.

03:24Don't Google it.

03:25Don't ask AI about this.

03:26It'll probably give you the wrong answer.

03:27Oh, AI will always tell you the worst possible thing.

03:31Do not use it as a doctor.

03:32Very good advice.

03:34Nicholas Buckley, Toxicologist with Sydney University.

03:36Thank you so much for that.

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